The SA80 rifle is a type of rifle commonly employed by the British military. The term “SA80 rifle” generally denotes one of a family of rifles, which includes the L85A1 rifle and the L85A2 rifle, among others. Most SA80 rifles include a conventional handguard that can be opened from above to expose interior components of the rifle. Specifically, the conventional SA80 handguard includes an upper handguard portion and a lower handguard portion. The two handguard portions are coupled together via a hinge and a catch, which are located on opposite sides of the handguard. The catch generally maintains the upper handguard member in a closed position. When the catch is released, the upper handguard portion may be rotated about the hinge to expose interior components of the rifle, such as the gas piston system. This configuration may permit servicing the interior of the rifle without removing the handguard.
One problem with the conventional SA80 handguard is that the catch may not be secure enough to impede the handguard from opening inadvertently. Typically, the catch is a metal leaf spring having a fixed end and a free end. The fixed end is attached to the upper handguard portion, usually with a series of screws. The free end has a flange suited for engaging a groove on the lower handguard portion. When the upper handguard portion is closed, the bias of the catch may maintain the flange in the groove, securing the handguard portions together. To open the handguard, the upper handguard portion is engaged with enough force to overcome the bias in the catch, releasing the flange from the groove so that the upper handguard portion can be rotated away from the lower handguard portion. However, relatively little force may be required to remove the flange from the groove, reducing the security of the catch.
Another problem with the conventional SA80 handguard is that it does not feature a rail assembly. A rail assembly is a mounting platform for attaching accessories such as scopes and lasers to the rifle. Typically, the rail assembly includes a number of rails, each rail having mounting projections and grooves interleaved along its length that are used to attach the accessories to the rifle. The rails usually conform to accepted standards regarding shape and dimension set by military organizations such as the U.S. Department of Defense and NATO, examples of these standards including the Picatinny rail standard and the Weaver rail standard. Because the conventional SA80 handguard lacks such rails, however, it may be difficult to associate certain accessories with the rifle.
Instead of rails, the SA80 rifle may feature a STANAG mount, which is a type of mounting platform that conforms to a NATO Standardized Agreement. An example STANAG mount is shown in FIG. 8. The STANAG mount is positioned along the top of the upper receiver in general alignment with the barrel. To mount an accessory to the STANAG mount, the mount has two parallel mounting arms extending along its opposite lateral sides. The arms have projections that can mate with corresponding channels on the accessory. One problem with the STANAG mount is that its mounting arms differ in shape and configuration from the grooves and projections found on Picatinny and Weaver rails, and therefore the mount may not be suited for mounting some conventional accessories. Another problem with STANAG mount is that the mount is often misaligned along the rifle, tending to the left or the right. In such cases the mount imparts a corresponding misalignment on any accessory, which may decrease the effectiveness of the accessory. For example, the viewpoint of certain optics may be disturbed. The systems and methods of the present disclosure may alleviate one or more of these problems.